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How to Win Friends and Influence People

The US is the biggest donors of food and money to North Korea to keep the evil regime in place so that it will not lash out in its death throes and rain death and destruction on the countries around it. There are some who think that id we are nice to them they will be nice to us. Shaa!

A poster image of missiles attacking the U.S. Capitol building hangs on a wall of a shoe factory in Sinuiju, in North Korea, Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2002. The city of 400,000, which lies on the border with China, is to be walled off from the rest of North Korea and turned into a special economic zone in an attempt to attract foreign investment to the isolated nation. The Korean characters read ''If someone starts an invasion war, we will crush the U.S. bastards first.'' (AP Photo/str)

Now I don't believe that they should give us big smoochy kisses (such as President Carter seems to give every despicable dictator that he can find), but how's about turning the evil rhetoric button from 11 down to say.... 6?
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 08:33

Damn Commie Pinko Journalists

Could learn a thing or two about journalism and supporting the Army Based Country Striving for Perfection Under the Stars (or some such commie-speak) by just buying and reading this:

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:56

No Time to Comment...

(I am indisposed at the moment so I can't really do this justice. But...)

Not that I was watching or anything, but I noticed the religiosity of this year's Miss America vacuum-heads much like in this article:

Then in a backstage interview with a group of just- rejected presumed maidens, the losers practically declared in unison that their failures were just part of Jesus' plan. After all, He was their personal savior and now it was time to wolf down some doughnuts and pizza just placed in front of them because Jesus clearly had other plans for them.Guess they hadn't prayed hard enough...
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:29

Lazy Day

I normally don't just point you at an article and say go read it (well, sometimes) but here is one you should go and read in the WaPo this morning. Great blog-dig at France in the end:

If France and Russia seek a world in which nations act purely on the basis of interest and power, they will get it. In it, America will do just fine. As the president's recent national security strategy document makes clear, it will remain the "hyperpower." But as France and Russia might have noticed, they're not very powerful anymore. They have seats on the U.N. Security Council only because they won the last great war 50 years ago. (I use the word "won" loosely when speaking of France.) Unless they act responsibly, they are now in danger of losing the next one.

Bwahaha! France hasn't seen a war that it didn't want to lose.

Beret wearing surrender monkeys.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 07:58

Why is it...?

That when people call radio talk shows, they instantly revert to being giggling morons (or become one the first time if they weren't before). I say this because I often hear people talking to the host who then interupts and makes some inane comment (sometimes a joke sometimes not) which is garaunteed to make the caller giggle or laugh appreciatively... For example:

Caller: So we should invade Iraq and make them change their leaders...
Host: Then we would be between Iraq and a hard place
Caller: Hehe... Yeah.

You know something? The "Iraq and a hard place" was not funny then and it is not funny now. Most of what the host interrupts to say is not funny and you only look like a gap toothed, mouth breathing, slope headed moron when you laugh at inappropriate moments. Wait until big mouth has his say, ask if he is done being a twit, then make your point (and make sure it is smaller than the one on your head).

The other people that belong in this category of derision are the idiots who attend "World's Most Hilariously Side Splitting Home Videos". They watch some badly taped drivel (when will people in this country learn how to shoot videos with decent gear?) of Junior attempting to take a bat to the family pet whereupon he falls on his butt and laugh like their lives depend on it. First off, the video is from 1994 and is not funny. NOT FUNNY! Secondly there is no reason to even giggle at this shit let alone laugh so hard you need Depends before the show is over.

Stop it! Jeebus just knock it off! The US has become the butt of jokes amongst even neandertals for our lack of taste in humor.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:54

Double Quote Missing Double Quote

I was incorrect in assuming that the North Korean Mouthpiece of the Central Committee (KCNA) would not write anything about the Japanese citizens kidnapped by evil North Koreans years ago to train their spies. Well, they didn't quite say it that way. They used English words but in the immortal words of Inigo Montoya: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means":

DPRK Foreign Ministry spokesman on issue of missing Japanese

Pyongyang, September 17 (KCNA) -- The DPRK Red Cross Society informed the Japanese side of the fact that it has confirmed the whereabouts of missing Japanese. In this connection, a spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry today issued a statement. The statement said:

The DPRK Red Cross Society notified the Japanese side of the fact that it has confirmed the whereabouts of missing Japanese on the list requested by the Japan Red Cross to ascertain.
We take this serious.
It is regretful that these issues surfaced in the past as a product of the abnormal relationship between the DPRK and Japan.
We will prevent such things from happening in the future.
We are ready to provide facilities to those survivors identified to enable them to meet with their families and relatives and those concerned of the Japanese government, if necessary, and take necessary steps to let them return home or visit their hometowns if they wish.

As regards the issue of plane "Yodo," the DPRK government takes note of the fact that those related to it expressed their intention to go back home.
We respect their intention to go back home of their own accord and expect that the issue would be solved as smoothly as possible from a humanitarian point of view

These people were not "missing", you doublespeaking buffoons! To be missing they would be in a state where they could not be found. Amelia Erhart is missing. Atlantis is missing. The French Military trophies for first place are missing (oops, I just checked, there aren't any). The Washington Redskins defense is missing. The Euroweenies balls are missing. http://warnow.blogspot.com/ is missing. (wow, lot of stuff gone missing recently) What the Japanese people in North Korea are certainly NOT is "missing". They were in fact kidnapped against their will, taken to the strangest country on earth, forced to labor for a hated dictatorship and most likely killed while "trying to escape" (the majority of them anyway). Look it up in your filing cabinet under "Slaves, Japanese".

But now that we have this little unfortunate business out of the way, we can remove the "missing" Japanese back to their homelands "if they want to go" (shaaaa!) and turn their rooms into storage sheds for the bundles of Japanese Yen that we expect to come dropping out of the sky any minute now... Yep, right about... Now... Still waiting...
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:27

OK, You Are Right, Sorry! Now, Where is Our Money?

Wow, turns out that North Korea was lying (lying! Who woulda thunk it?!) all these years when they said that they hadn't kidnapped Japanese citizens all those years ago:

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - In an astonishing concession, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il confirmed Tuesday that Japanese citizens were kidnapped decades ago to teach language and culture to spies. Kim said at least four of the victims were still alive and might be allowed to return home.

Ending years of denials, Kim admitted the kidnappings during a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Kim said about a dozen Japanese were kidnapped by North Korean agents, acknowledging the abductions were "regrettable and would never happen again." Kim said those responsible would be punished.

Oh, they MIGHT be allowed to return home?!? Not only should they be allowed to return home (first class on Pyongyang Airlines... if they have first class) but they should also get gobs and gobs of North Korean Won so as to compensate them for having to live in that hell hole all these years.

Of course not all of them made it out alive:

"This happened over decades of hostile relations and I want to talk about it frankly," Kim was quoted as telling Koizumi by a Japanese delegation official who briefed reporters afterward. "I want to apologize and it will never be allowed to happen again."

Six of the 11, whom Tokyo has long claimed were abducted, were confirmed to be dead, while one never entered the country. North Korea also admitted that two others who disappeared in Europe had died.

Actually, all kidding aside, this is a momentous admission from Kim Jong Il. What he is now saying is that his father, Kim Il Sung made a mistake. Nothing like this would have happened in North Korea without KIS's blessing. They will now claim that "rogue elements" in the Army did it or something. There are not any "rogue elements" in the army in North Korea.

What this also means is that KJI is willing to drop Daddy's legacy for some Japanese Yen. Once he gets these pesky kidnapping details out of the way, he can hold his hand out and demand the dough (or rice or whatever the euphemism is in the East). You can bet that you won't see this sort of thing reported in the KCNA.

Update: Here are some more details.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:22

OK, OK, Another Phrase That Really Doesn't Work

Steve Martin did a whole thing a long time ago about phrases you never hear in movies like "Throw me that piano" and "Do whatever you want to the girl, just leave me alone!" I have written about a couple that I have found like "52-year old prosititute" and others. Now I have found another phrase to add to my "words that should never be together in the same sentence" file.

Wait for it...

They had on sandals with platform soles at least six inches high and tightly cut abayas.

Tightly Cut abayas!!! Bwahahaha! Can you imagine?

The woman-with-the-vapors who wrote this article goes on and on about the decline and fall of Saudi civilization (*snicker*) due to these hussies!

Believe me folks, I know you might find such stories strange. After all, in Saudi society we have always placed our women on pedestals. Our daughters could do no wrong.

Except when they are trying to flee a burning building without their abayas (tightly cut or otherwise). Oh, and being from the planet earth, I find all stories coming out of Saudi Arabia to be strange.

How do these young women manage to leave their homes so boldly attired? I know that some of their families don't care. Others abuse the trust of their parents. I have seen young women come with friends into the restrooms at shopping malls and proceed to tart themselves up. From their handbags they take out their make- up and cologne. They produce their high heels from a shopping bag. Stockings are abandoned. They rearrange their clothing to make it less modest.

One night last month, while washing my hands at a mall restroom, my curiosity got the better of my manners. As one of these misguided teens was re-touching her mascara, I asked her if she didn't think that what she was doing was degrading. She looked at me for a moment, and then with a nasty smirk said, kazakallah khair?(May God grant you goodness), which in this context meant that I should leave her alone. I did, but I felt terribly sad for her.

Gee, maybe these girls are being normal human teenagers and not robotic Islamonazis who would whip them for showing their ankles. Has she never heard all those stories of the Saudis dropping all that Islam shit the minute that their airplanes leave SA space and begin to partake of the partying? Wine, women and song and all that? Maybe the girls in the mall are reacting to the complete hypocrisy and stupidity of their "rulers" and taking thins into their own hands.

And speaking of hands, there is this nancy boy:

There was one young man who did his college internship at a local bookshop. He was assigned to the Arabic book section and sales began skyrocketing. The young women all took turns having the handsome young Saudi help them find exactly the titles they needed. The young man was polite but he wasn't interested in anything outside the job. He had been engaged to his cousin for years.

Finally the situation crossed the line when a young woman asked the store manager to instruct the young man to carry her purchases out to the car. Once they got there, as he put her bags into the vehicle, she caught hold of his hand, even though the driver was present. The young man snatched his hand back and hurriedly returned to the bookstore where he demanded to be reassigned to the accounting department.

His hand! Dayum! Get a hotel, you dirty whore! You'll be scaring the camels with that sort of behavior right out in public and all.

Hang on! Dude's engaged to his cousin?!? Ohhh, that explains a lot of what goes on down there (cough*inbreeding*cough).

So as you can see America has had an influence on the righteous, allah fearing densizens of Saudi Arabia: makeup, perfume, touching of hands, "tightly fitting abayas". Wait a bit, the revolution will begin.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 13:44

At Least They Can Try in the South

KCNA (the North Korean "Voice of the People [as long as "the people includes only Kim Jong Il]) is "reporting" (otherwise known as "making up") the following story:

S. Korean students reject military service

Pyongyang, September 12 (KCNA) -- Students affiliated with the south Korean "National Council of Student Associations" (Jonhakhyop) launched a signature campaign rejecting military service in Seoul on Sept. 6, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported. They held that human rights of those who refused military service, feeling remorse of conscience, are a matter related to democracy of society, not confined to religion. They demanded that the right to reject military service be allowed for vital human rights.
They declared that they would collect 100,000 signatures among citizens and students by October.

They must be laughing themselves silly in Pyongyang attempting to imagine a similar thing happening in North Korea. North Koreans do a minimum of 8 years of military service where they are rarely, if ever, allowed to go on leave to visit family or even to take a day off.

North Korea students could try something like this, I suppose, but it would be the last thing they ever tried.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 12:16

Shows You Who Your Friends Really Are

Go here now and see something that made Corsair the Rational Pirate into Corsair the Sniffle-Nosed Crybaby.

I said Now!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:39

What A Pin Headed, Self Righteous, Asshole!

A certain Ben Shapiro seeks to speak for all those he does not agree with (not just a few of them, but all of us who do not believe as he does. What a monumentally stupid prick):

People say everything changed on Sept. 11. It isn't true. Things just came sharply into focus. For a brief moment, Americans came together against a common enemy. We weren't afraid to call evil by its name or to confront it. We united under God.

Gee, I must have missed the part where everyone in the US marched off in lockstep to the local church to Pledge Allegiance To God. I figured that Americans (not Godians) felt anger at being attacked for the International Crime of being Americans. We therefore pulled together regardless of how we spent our Fridays or Saturdays or Sundays to help our country get through a rough and trying period (which we are still getting through).

America has divided into two factions: those who fight evil and those who do not believe in evil. The dividing line is religion.

This is like saying we are divided into two factions, those who like apples and those who watch wrestling. The two have nothing to do with one another! One can fight evil and not go to church. What pencil neck wanted to say was that there are two kinda people out there, those who believe in a religiously-based evil complete with satan and demons and excorcisms and those who believe that people alone can do things to each other so evil even without mythical invisible bengs sitting on our shoulders goading us with little pitch forks. Is there evil in the world? Of course, look at New York a year ago or Northern Ireland or Cambodia or any number of human caused atrocities (like bell bottom pants). Blaming all that evil on an invisible red guy who lives underground is just silly. Can we, as a country get together to fight this evil and not spend all day in church looking for guidance? I should hope so!

Those who believe in a Judeo-Christian God know the difference between good and evil because they know the value of human life. They know that an element of man is divine and that man has a purpose in the universe. They know that man has free will to choose between good and evil. And because they know the value of life, they know the evil of those who take it for non-defensive purposes.

And they know the value of human life since those "who believe in a Judeo-Christian God" have spent much of the last couple of thousand years fighting and killing untold numbers of human lives in his name to show how pious they are.

The other faction does not believe in God, at least not actively. There is no good, and there is no evil, these people believe. If God has no purpose for man -- as they believe -- then life is meaningless, and the death of thousands of Americans has no more meaning than the death of a colony of ants.

They believe everything is a shade of gray. They think that the terrorists were provoked by American foreign policy in the Middle East. They think the proper response is appeasement of those who murder Americans. They sully America's moral status in the world by attempting to bribe those who hate us.

Here is where butt munch goes right around the corner, down the street and over the edge! "There is no good"? "There is no evil"? Of course there is, you panty waisted maroon. It, however has nothing to do with your little book of ancient fables. Helping granny across the street is good. Running over granny as she crosses the street is evil. Now that wasn't hard to figure out, was it? And I was not forced to track down some obscure, contradictory bible quote to prove my point.

And just where do you get off trying to explain what I feel about the deaths of thousands of my fellw Americans? "Colony of Ants"! What a complete shithead. You have no idea what I or anyone else not affiliated with your brand of religious nonsense thinks just because you can't imagine what it must be like to be able to go through life without having to consult with your fairy tale book every time you turn around. Well, let me tell you it is liberating. We are able to think for ourselves and make decisions on our own. How is that for free will? It is the ultimate expression of it. Religion says "you have free will", but that you can't use it or you will go to hell. "Here is a book of rules you must follow or I will smite thee" What the hell kind of free will is that?

And as for "bribe those who hate us"? Wasn't it the Religious Right Wing's hero Reagan who sent an inscribed bible and a cake to the whack jobs in Iran to try and make them be nice to us?

In the cosmic sense, Falwell was correct. We have tossed God from the public schools. We have ignored his morality in favor of subjective man-made values. We cannot expect God to maintain his protection of us if we exile him.

Real nice guy, this God of yours. Seems kinda small minded and petulant, if you ask me. If we don't spend every waking moment doing exactly what he says, he is going to take his heaven and go home. Oh, and here is a natural or manmade disaster for you little ants to deal with while I am gone.

Putz! Stupid evil brainwashed putz! This is the poster child for why we fight to keep religion out of the schools and the public places. Put him in charge and the witch trials would begin next week with the requisite burning at the stakes to commence immediatly afterwards.

Arrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhh....
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:36

This Day and Every Day...

President Bush concluded his remarks at the Pentagon ceremony with:

May he watch over the US on this day and every day. God bless America.

Guess He musta been looking over some other country a year ago.

posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:15

Dayum! Dude Has Got It Going On!

This Wiley guy has balls. Printing something like this right before... you know. It is going to get all the religoids all in a tizzy:


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 17:04

They Found the Flintstones!

Someone must have found a dustly map (made out of a block of stone) in some national archive somewhere and tracked down where "Bedrock" was:

Bonn - Scientists working at the famed Neanderthal cave site in Germany on Monday announced
The discoveries were made at the historic site where the original "Neanderthal Man" was discovered in 1856, a site which had been lost for decades and which researchers only managed to rediscover just five years ago.

OK, so maybe they didn't exactly find the Flintstones:

As "romantically enchanting" as it is to assume that the three individuals constituted a kind of true-life Fred and Wilma Flintstone and baby Pebbles, Schmitz was quick to dispel media speculation.

"We have no scientific proof one way or the other that these individuals even knew each other," he said. Carbon 14 dating had pinpointed their age to approximately 40 000 BC - "give or take 20 generations or so".

Now if they can just find the bones of Dino this poor family can rest together in peace.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:48

I Feel You Should Shut Up and Let Us Get On With Life


posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:28

Arrrr, Me Buckoes! Start A'Talking Like Thiss or I'll Pin Ya to The Mizzen Mast!

Chip has alerted me to a (as Bill and Ted would say) Most Excellent Upcoming Event! According to Dave Barry:

Every now and then, some visionary individuals come along with a concept that is so original and so revolutionary that your immediate reaction is: "Those individuals should be on medication."

Today I want to tell you about two such people, John Baur and Mark Summers, who have come up with a concept that is going to make you kick yourself for not thinking of it first: Talk Like a Pirate Day. As the name suggests, this is a day on which everybody would talk like a pirate. Is that a great idea, or what? There are so many practical benefits that I can't even begin to list them all.

Avast Ye, Ya Scurvy Dogs! Ye See! My influence has started to spread around the world! Corsair the Rational Pirate will soon be a household name feared by morons respected by pointy-headed intellectuals (as long as I don't turn my piratical wrath on them), and adored by young, blonde Swedish ladies who would think nothing of wanting to spend a weekend in Barbados with him for which they wish to pay all (e-mail link is on the left, girls).

So remember, anyone not caught talking like a pirate on September 19 is in for it! There will be thumb screws and leg irons and cats-o-nine-tails and of course The Comfy Chair! Oops, sorry. I meant The Plank!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 11:39

It's a POTATO, You Wooly Headed Morons!

Christians and their insane desire to see their lord in their food are not alone.

The lard works in strange and mysterious ways. Or so west Phoenix housewife Ramona Barreras discovered in November 1977, when, while she was preparing Indian fry bread, the face of Jesus appeared on a tortilla she was cooking. Upon closer inspection, Barreras discovered that the tortilla also appeared to be branded with the letters K, J, C and B-initials she believes stand for King Jesus [is] Coming Back.

Of course, K, J, C, B could be King Juan Carlos de Bourbon but that wouldn't reinforce this woman's delusions as much. Oh, Yeah! I see it! Looks more like the face of the moon, straight jacket bait.










But now it seems that Hindus are equally wacky when it comes to their edible idolatry:

Pilgrims flock to 'divine potato'

Pilgrims are flocking to a house in Bombay where they believe that Elephant headed Hindu Lord Ganesha has appeared in the shape of a potato.

The potato is said to be shaped like the Lord Ganesha and people are offering money and gifts to seek the blessing of the "divine vegetable"

Now if this doesn't seem like a skit sraight out of Monty Python, than I couldn't think of a sillier one. The Divine Vegetable? The only vegetables involved in this story are the ones leaving money in front of a spud! Use you brains for something other than fairy tales and voodoo, people!






posted by corsair the rational pirate at 14:19

They Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks

Lots of good idiot stuff coming out of Korea these days. Now there is something called the Association for Driving Cars More than Ten Years (ADCMTY?) loudly complaining that US service members are ruining the pristine conditions and life quality of the citizens of South Korea, especially those in the park like environs of the Garden City of the East Seoul. Or something like that.

What they really claim is that:

Many old cars privately owned by U.S. servicemen in Korea emit exhaust in excess of the permissible level, damaging air quality in the country, a civic group claimed yesterday.

The Association for Driving Cars More than Ten Years said a considerable number of such cars pump out excessive fumes, but the Korean government cannot crack down on them.

Under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), vehicles owned by the U.S. military or American soldiers are exempt from regular emission checks required by Korean laws, as are diplomatic cars.

A recent spot check of five cars driven by U.S. soldiers showed that four of them emitted fumes exceeding the emission standards. The Seoul city administration conducted the check in front of a U.S. military base in Yongsan in early July.

OK a few points. The GIs are driving these heaps (known as ddong cha or shit car in Korean) because they are cheap. Most military members are not allowed to bring their cars from the US to Korea because it is far away, facilities for storage and maintenance on base are few and far between, and it is expensive to have the government fill up beig boats full of cars for servicepeople who are only going to be there (most of them) for a year.

So GI Joe gets to Korea, wants to pick up a set of wheels, and finds out about some ddong-cha being sold by some other GI Joe who is leaving for the States (Joke: Why don't Koreans ever smile? Because they don't have a DEROS [Date of Expected Return from Overseas Station]). It is some early '80s Hyundai Pony piece of shit but it gets him from here to there with a minimum of fuss.

Now the unsmiling members of ADCMTY come along and try to lay a big guilt trip on lowly GI Joe for despoiling the transcendent lovlieness of the capital of all that is good and beautiful in the world: Seoul.

Facts: There are about 37,000 GIs in the Republic of Korea. Let us be generous and say that 50 percent of said GIs own one form of ddong-cha or another (this number is ludicrously high as most live on base in barracks and dorms and getting a car approved for these folks is near impossible). That gives us a total of 18,500 cars. That is for all the GIs in Korea. ADCMTY is complaining only about those in Seoul. We'll say 25 percent of all cars are in Seoul (another silly assumption). That leaves 4,625 cars. In Seoul. The population of Seoul is 10,373,234 persons. There are 2,637,690 cars registered in Seoul as of July 2002. Let's do some math. If we uses the ridiculously high numbers of GI cars we deduced earlier we see that ADCMTY is complaining about .175% of all registered vehicles in Seoul.

Health experts say car exhaust contains a range of toxic materials that can pose a serious threat to public health, including carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide.

If you are going to regulate something, it ought to be the emissions coming out of the mouths of the ADCMTY people's cake (or in this case, kimchi) holes. They make themselves look silly and bring disrepute on morons everywhere.

And where is all the pollution coming from, anyway?

Among the 2.2 million vehicles registered with the Seoul City in 1999, private passenger cars accounted for 1.73 million units, or 78.8% of the total. Although the number of cars which use diesel fuel (including multi-carrying cars, cargo trucks and special vehicles) is about 470 thousand, or only 21.2% of the total, these account for more than half of the air pollutants. Diesel-powered cars are, therefore, main sources of air pollution in Seoul.
Most of the dust and nitrogen oxide, in particular, is produced by large Diesel-powered vehicles, including trucks and big buses. This attests to the fact that the rapid increase of vehicles is the most responsible source of air pollution. In order to reduce the generation of air pollutants by transportation means, which are the heaviest polluters, it is necessary to reduce the use of private passenger cars, which account for the most number, and increase the use of mass transit systems. Just as important is the implementation of the measures to raise the ratio of less- polluting fuel used by Diesel-powered vehicles.

Frigging dirty ass diesel short haul trucks spewing their smokey death into the air. I can assure you that GIs do not buy diesel trucks to move their lazy asses around in.

So instead of complaining about the couple of cars that GIs drive, why don't the ADCMTY look at the death-spewing trucks idling on the highways since traffic is such a disaster? When you knock out all those sources of shitty air, then we can talk.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:28

You Say Toe-May-Toe I Say Round-Red-Fruit

Japan and Korea live next door to each other. And like neighbors all over the world, they have some issues. That whole colony thing last century, comfort women, slave labor and other small issues that have not really been resolved between the two of them. Luckily they haven't let those unresolved issues stop them from confronting perhaps the most important issue facing two neighboring countries on this Earth today. What to call that body of water betwixt the two nations.

Korean officials said yesterday they would not continue bilateral talks with Japan on naming the body of water that separates the two countries, which Koreans call the East Sea, as long as Tokyo insists that "Sea of Japan," be retained.

"It's meaningless to continue talks if Japan only uses them to reaffirm that it will not consider any name other than the 'Sea of Japan,'" a Foreign Ministry official said.

The Tokyo government has proposed resuming bilateral negotiations with Seoul, which were last held in December, on what to call the sea between the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago.

The ministry official, however, said the Seoul government has not yet rejected the offer officially.

He said Japan has claimed the existing term for the waters should be maintained pending negotiations between the two nations, a position that he noted is behind its proposal for talks.

Seoul has demanded that the sea be renamed the "East Sea." As a compromise, it has requested the concurrent usage of the two different names.

The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) has proposed omitting pages with the name "Sea of Japan" in its upcoming revision to "Limits of Oceans and Seas," an authoritative international publication on oceanography.

Why not try calling it the "Sea of the East" or "East of Japan Sea" that way everyone gets something and no one walks away with maps that look silly to everyone else?

Strangely enough, the Koreans also call the East China Sea the South Sea and the Yellow Sea is the West Sea (get it? East West South and I am sure they would like to make North Korea into the North Sea). Not a lot of imagination in the naming convention thing but their schoolkids will never mistake the Atlantic for the Pacific in their neighborhood.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 10:26

B l o o d P r e s s u r e I n c r e a s i n g . . .

Don't know how to start this one, so I will start with a quote:

"Right now, pedophiles are made into monsters," Berlin said. "People don't think it's acceptable to look at them as humans who have real problems, treatable problems."

Remember the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? There is a scene in that movie where Roger goes all berserko when he drinks whiskey. Shoots around the room and screams like a steam whistle. Glasses break and things fall off shelves. That is what I am thinking. Right about now. Losers who rey on children are different than losers who prey on adults or sheep or grapefruit. In fact it is my considered opinion that anyone who touches a child in any way sexually has forfeited any and all claim to being part of the human race. That of course makes them eligible for smashing into little tiny bits in one of those big machines at the junk yard which makes cars look like dinner plates.

If these non-human monsters are so worried about being perceived as the outcasts that they are, they should get "treatment" before they ruin some little kids life. Once they whip out their johnson on the playground (or the church or the school or anywhere) they have lost any moral claim to being a victim.

Then we get a look at this paragon of virture and responsibility:

The convicted East Bay pedophile, Robert, who began having regular sexual contact with another little boy at the age of 5, said he would probably always be attracted to children, especially to young boys who remind him of those early encounters. However, through therapy and injections of Lupron, a synthetic, hormone-like drug that lowers testosterone levels, Robert said he was "not at risk of reoffending."

"I used to be in a state of denial that what I was doing was hurting these kids," he said. "I had very high testosterone levels. I had to have sex every day. It got to the point where it was out of control. I would drive around with my pants down, looking for boys."

After Robert had been paroled on his second conviction, he sought treatment on his own. He attended therapy sessions three days a week for four years, had biweekly injections and went on antidepressants. Through behavioral therapy, Robert said, he has learned why he's attracted to children and realizes the pain he's caused.

Oh, I just wish he had driven by me. It would have been the last time Mr. Happy made an appearance in this creep's car. It would be hard to chase down little boys in a wheelchair. And just what they hell was this diseased asshole doing being paroled? Someone must have felt sorry for him since he is such an unlikeable, pathetic, loser creep.

Then Mr. Ivory Tower chirps in with:

Whether one believes pedophilia is a sickness or not, the problem will not go away on its own, experts say.

Tucker, the UCSF professor, agrees. "If society doesn't think we should treat these people, they are guaranteeing we will have more and more victims."

Yeah, but none of them get treatment until after they have offended against society. Who are you going to treat before they get their jollies off with 8-year olds? Going to call in the PreCrime Unit? You have to wait for these sickoes to make their move and then you have lost. Treatment does not help the victim of the first attack. You may be able to save future victims, but this would much more easily be achieved by not letting the sick bastards out in the first place! Especially on parole! Make the sentences long enough that the shits-for-brains are going to require viagara to get it up when they get out and then deny it to them! Problem solved, money saved in "therapy session" fees, and young children saved. Yeah for me!
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 13:40

Prostitutes? For the Military? In Korea?

I can't believe it! Most of the "evening entertainment facilities" frequented by Corsair the Ex-Air Force Zoomie and his buddies resembled a church social (*snicker*). Sure there were unattached young women there. But they were always chaperoned by their "mama-san/ajuma" who looked out for them and their bar tab refreshment needs.

However, things have changed:

GENEVA - Young women are being lured to South Korea ( news - web sites) and kept as virtual slaves to provide sexual services for U.S. servicemen stationed there, according to a report released Tuesday.

The International Organization for Migration said that at least 5,000 women, mostly Filipinas and Russians, have been trafficked into South Korea for the sex industry since the mid-1990s but the real figure may be much higher.

The Filipina women are targeted because they speak English, making them popular with U.S. servicemen, the report said. In 1999, around 1,000 Filipinas were working in bars in towns near U.S. bases.

At least back then all the girls were strictly Koreans. They would rather have worked there than the shoe industry producing identical Nikes all day long. Were some of them there under duress? A few must have been, but most were in it for the money and many didn't make a habit of going home with anyone after work got out.

One odd thing that the article mentioned:

The move followed a report by a Cleveland television station that secretly filmed U.S. military police patrolling bars and brothels, where the officers said women were forced to prostitute themselves. Lawmakers expressed concerns that the officers were in effect working on behalf of the establishments.

Osan Airbase, at the time, made all of the juicy girls bar hostesses come on base, get a medical checkup regularly, and have somewhere on their possesion (which was harder thatn you think given some of the "work uniforms" some of these girls wore (or didn't wear)) a picture ID issued by the base authorities (this was supposed to facilitate finding the girls when Johnny GI showed up at the clinic with "the drip") If that was not aiding and abetting the practices described heretofore, I don't know what was.

It actually used to be common practice to go down to the gym, have a nice workout and then wander in to the sauna for a massage of more than your tired muscles, if you get my drift. Rumor had it that the starched shirt, virginal base commander decided to partake of such an afternoon workout and was shocked to discover that the massage lady had other things than deep tissue and knotted muscles on her mind. He quickly put a stop to the whole practice forcing many a young Airman downtown to get their "relief" after that.
posted by corsair the rational pirate at 13:17